Across the Sea of Twilight
by Arnen
Summary: We all know what happened to The World in Japan, but what was going on in America? This is the story of a young girl from Chicago who starts the most popular game in history with her best friend. more info inside


I came up with this idea the other day while listening to some music from SIGN. I wanted to write a fanfic about what was going on in the American servers of The World, and I got this idea going in my head about how weird it would be if two players met in the game, only to find out that they actually go to the same high school in real life! That won't come into play until a little later now. Also, this is my first fic in awhile and my first one here, so please don't flame me if it's not that great ; I'm trying to stick as close as possible to the game, so if anyone notices anything wrong with the names of items and such, please let me know. The T rating is for violence and language, by the way.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own .hack, The World, or any of the items, weapons, locations, or NPCs therein (though I wish I owned Balmung TT cling). Arnen and any other characters I come up with, however are mine. Terris belongs to my friend Nathan. Any conversations and etc. with Terris were role-played out between the two of us, so I can't say that he is mine in any way.

**./Across the Sea of Twilight\\.**

_Chapter 1: Into the World of Fantasy_

* * *

I practically flew to my room, phone in one hand, and a large brown box in the other.

"Hang on," I said, placing the phone on my desk as my fingers fumbled with the top of the box, shaking slightly from excitement. As the front of the box caught the light, the metallic golden letters spelling "The World" shone, plainly the cause of my excitement. The box itself was styled to look like a leather-bound book, the front plain save for the lettering proclaiming its contents. Across the back side were displayed images from the most popular game in history. Warriors wielding swords and mages wielding staves, doing battle with gigantic monsters in beautiful fields and ominous dungeons. Breathtaking.

I dug through the contents, tossing papers to the side and placing the manual on my desk, to the left of my keyboard. I found the disc and tore it from the plastic containing it, pressed the button to open the disc drive on my computer, and plugged in my new headset. I picked up the phone and waited for it to install.

"I've got a twenty-minute wait. Tch. Must be huge," I stated boredly. "What about you, Xander?"

I heard my best friend sigh. His full name was Alexander, but he thought that sounded too stuffy, and he thought Alex was too common, so everyone calls him Xander.

"My computer's crap, I have to wait 23 minutes," he replied, a bit of anger in his voice. I laughed.

"Man, how old is your computer, again?" I managed to choke out.

"At least a few years." he mumbled. I could almost see him glaring at his monitor.

"Heheh..." I chuckled maniacally, stroking the monitor of my week-old computer. It had been a gift for receiving such high grades on my report card, though the buying of it had been delayed until my parents could set aside enough money. I was not disappointed.

"Lucky, we can barely afford to keep our computer running now, it's probably gonna cost us a lot more now that I'm gonna have The World," he said tiredly, a bit of sadness in his voice. He sounded upset, but I knew from experience that he wasn't really. I chuckled to myself and sat back, brushing a slightly curly brown lock from my eyes as I watched the little grey bar tick by.

We launched into a discussion about how we would make our characters. Xander would be using the name Terris, as he always did for anything online, and I would be using, Arnen, as I used similarly. Going along with his love of mage classes, he decided to be a Wavemaster, while I, preferring speedy attacking classes, chose to be a Twin Blade. Finally, after what seemed like forever, it was finished installing for me. I decided to go ahead and make my character, since, being the perfectionist that am, I would take longer to create mine anyway. I created an account and loaded up the game, my fingers twitching slightly in anticipation and not quite hitting the keys I wanted.

I entered in my character's name and gender, then went about the process of creating her. I chose a medium-tan skin tone, and after scrolling through hairstyles, I decided on a plain straight style that fell to just above mid-back length, and put it in a dark navy blue. I found a suitable pair of eyes, set them to a medium-dark grey color, then set about selecting a set of tattoos. Settling upon some plain black stripes, I selected an outfit that consisted of a light chestplate, black in color, with long indigo cloth sleeves that cut off mid upper arm and are connected to the lower arm section by a pair of black straps, and cloth falling down from the bottom of the chestplate to about the bottom of the rib cage. It also had black shorts with indigo stripes down the sides that go to mid-thigh, with straps connecting them to knee-high black and indigo boots.

About that time, Xander confirmed that he had begun creating his character. Sure enough, he finished as I was still designing a weapon, or rather, weapons. They were round bladed discs with holes in the center, held by a pole going across the diameter, with a portion coming off in a sharp, curved blade. I selected a few basic skills and confirmed my character, then put on my headset and re-logged in, getting my first true taste of The World.

A loading screen came up across the screen before my eyes, stating that this was the root town of Delta-US (A/N: All the American servers have -US after their names), Mac Anu.

The music that came floating through the headphone portion of my headset was calming, filled with the sounds of strings and pipes, the melody blending splendidly with the steady gurgling of water from somewhere ahead and the conversation of the players around me. Terris reported over the phone that the town was taking a while to load, so I took the opportunity to play around with the game options. The menu came up in the form of a transparent blue screen that appears before your character. I set the usual options for messages, PK, and sound, and chose not to have the game modify my voice electronically.

Just as I finished, I heard a sound from behind. I turned to see a character that could be no one's but Xander's. Slightly taller than the usual male Wavemaster of that style, but still shorter than most other players, with slightly tanned skin similar to his real skin tone, and shining silver hair that was slightly longer than earlobe length, and golden eyes. His robes were white with swirling gold designs, his shoes slightly pointed. His hat was also white with matching swirl designs in gold, with a large baby blue gem on each side. Just above and to the outside of either violet eye, coming down from the temples at a very slight slant, were a pair of stripes of matching hue to the gems on his cap. Perched on his nose were rectangular golden spectacles, the part that goes over the ears curving around the back of the ear and resting just behind the lobe. Pressing the key to emote a smile, I tilted the control stick forward to approach him.

"Hey, Terris!" I said into the microphone.

His character's head was moving this way and that, as he apparently took in his surroundings, wide-eyed with excitement and awe. "Oh, Hello Arnen!" he cried at length, smiling happily.

Turning the camera, I also had another look around. "This is so cool... Oh, and make sure to set your options, it even has a thing to electronically make your voice sound higher or lower," I grinned absently.

"Hhmm.." After a few moments of deliberation, he said, now in a slightly higher voice, "How's this?"

"Suits you much better," I complimented with a smile and a nod. "Hmm..." My character seemed to stare off into space as the sounds of my shuffling through the player's manual could be heard; after a short time, the character's eyes become alert once again. "Ok! It says in here that to go to an area, you walk up to the Chaos Gate," the golden ring with the transparent blue center received an offhand wave of the hand, "and say the keywords aloud," I concluded, setting the manual aside.

"Wait a minute," he piped up, "I was reading my manual while my computer was loading and, it said you should form a party with friends before going into an area," he smiled and tilted his head to the side, his character completely motionless. "Yup, gotta form a party." A few seconds later his character began to move again.

I nodded, pressing the menu button. "Ok." A small blue screen (A/N: that's how the menus are gonna look; to the person playing, it appears in front of their character and everything as well and the menu comes up like a hologram. For battles, you just say the name of the skill or spell, so no menu is needed.) appeared in my vision and, after a little bit of typing and clicking, I had opened up the party screen. Currently, it flashed "No Party", but after a bit more clicking and flipping through the manual, a little purple envelope with a "P" on it appeared before Terris. "Ok, now touch that and say 'I accept'," I nodded, smiling.

He slowly reached out and gently touched the envelope, producing a chiming sound. It suddenly opened and gave options for parties. He slowly touched the "Accept" button and it disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared with a small chime. "Woah." The screen in front of me now showed us both, along with basic stats, equipment, skills, HP, and SP.

"Ok, I think that's it!" I grinned, "Let's go!" I ran over to the Chaos Gate, Terris at my heels. "You hafta stand in the circle here," I instructed. He nodded and stepped inside the ring on the ground. I then touched the gate, making several golden rings come out. The hair on the back of my neck was sticking up against the back of my headset in anticipation. "Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field!"


End file.
